silent surprise both by
Mackintosh and the half-breed, who had come out from the tent and stood
attentively apart.

"Well, well," the Scotsman commented at the close, "these are stirring
times for you boys. There's no' a bit o' doot aboot that." Then he added
seriously: "But I'm thinking we'll no' be able to wait here ower long.
We must set oot at once. I ken something o' this Indian legend o'
water-spirits, and I ken something o' Indian ways as well. There's evil
things that will be doing if we canna stop them."

"Did you find out anything while you were away with Haggis?" questioned
Bob.

"A bit. We found the tracks o' boots as well as moccasins, and we
followed far enough to learn that they had gone to the Dacotah village.
Then we came back to fetch you laddies. And I found four grand specimens
for my collection! Real fine they are--such as will make my brither
entomologists in Edinburgh open their eyes as big as Duddingston Loch
when they see them. But there--I must be daft to be thinkin' o' moths at
such a time. See, Haggis! Hurry on wi' the denner! We'll be striking the
camp, for we must mak' straight for Pleasant Valley wi'oot delay."

The speaker was all bustle and hurry now, and as the boys followed to
render assistance, Bob asked--

"Pleasant Valley? But did you not say that they were at the Dacotah
village?"

"Of course I did. But I said _were_, not _are_. Did you no' attend to
what your freend said--that Red Fox told him that Mighty Hand would
leave for Pleasant Valley by another sun? That's the day."

"Oh, I see. Then you mean to go there direct?"

"Exactly. I ken something o' that Pleasant Valley. There's no' a verra
pleasant look aboot it noo--a desert o' a place--all crags and sand,
wi' just a pickle o' trees. It's a branch arm o' the Athabasca, and has
been a torrent at some flood-time--the time that probably started the
legend. But there's no' been ony stream flowing there in the
recollection o' living man. But"--and the naturalist was predominant for
the instant--"there are rare kinds o' hawk moth to be found in that same
desert! You'll be seeing the value o' my phosphorus invention before
another couple of nights are out."

The boys laughed as the man's enthusiasm came suddenly uppermost, to the
exclusion of (to their minds) a subject of more vital importance.

"I do believe, Skipper, that you would sooner capture a rare beetle than
be a Napoleon!" laughed Bob, to which the naturalist rep